Afghan middle class wonders: What happens when the U.S. leaves?
After the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, thousands of Afghan families returned from abroad, or came in from the countryside, to construct urban and increasingly Westernized lives. They built homes and careers based on an influx of foreign money, expanded bureaucracies and new educational opportunities.
And they are the ones most haunted by the fear that it could all just be a bubble, doomed to pop once foreign money and Western militaries stop holding it up…
Sitting in the large house he built on a $95,000 plot of land in airy western Kabul and playing with his 5-year-old daughter, he is a member of a young Afghan generation whose eyes burn with modest aspiration for what would be by outside standards an ordinary life — access to electricity, schools for his son and daughter, rule of law, security.
“But I am quite afraid about the future at the moment,” he said. “If I got the chance, I would go now.”
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Same thing that’s currently happening in Iraq?
princetrumpet on February 12, 2013 at 2:49 PM
Middle class in Afghanistan means small opium poppy farmer or small bribe taking bureaucrat.
Middle class is a uniquely American feature. Because only in American is the freedom to grow higher up from the middle class.
platypus on February 12, 2013 at 2:51 PM
Leave. Now. When a west-friendly government falls to radicals, people who were conspicuously pro-western and/or pro-government are going to get rounded up and imprisoned or killed.
There’s the whole aside about the wisdom of placing ones entire livelihood in the hands of the stability of one of the most unstable nations in the history of the world, but for now my advice is get out with your lives.
LukeinNE on February 12, 2013 at 2:53 PM
Simple; you die. No Amican dollars and no freedom.
michaelo on February 12, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Not even close… After we leave Afghanistan will be totally controlled by the Taliban terrorists and go back to literally live in 7th century islamic society, and I mean literally… Even worst for us Afghanistan will be once again a center for islamic terrorism ready to cause a lot death and destruction to us and the world… Yet another super failed legacy by the parasite class President Obama…
mnjg on February 12, 2013 at 2:57 PM
You fight for what you believe in…or you can run. The choice is yours because it’s your country.
sharrukin on February 12, 2013 at 2:57 PM
Go stand in the US embassy. Wait for that chopper.
Red Creek on February 12, 2013 at 3:02 PM
Descent into civil war.
Haven for terrorists.
Attack on US soil.
Left blaming the attack on the US for abandoning Afghanistan.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Ben Hur on February 12, 2013 at 3:02 PM
So that would add it to the list of Libya, Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, the White House, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.
sharrukin on February 12, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Get out now. The Taliban will return with a vengeance. I hope the ladies enjoyed their peek at the sun. Back to prison with you because you are just too special to be out in public.
Dan_Yul on February 12, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Whatever happens, you can follow our “leading-from-behind” President and blame it on George W. Bush — and have the American lapdog media back you 100%.
I’m sure it will be a great comfort in your final moments.
cthulhu on February 12, 2013 at 3:09 PM
One thing that will happen is that someone else will have to fight to maintain the life you have now. I suggest you middle class Afghans buy firearms and load up on ammo, because if you aren’t willing to fight, and possibly die, for what you have it will be taken away from you.
Dusty on February 12, 2013 at 3:18 PM
You will fight and maybe die, or you will not fight and certainly die.
Choose.
Rebar on February 12, 2013 at 3:21 PM
Well, folks, really I am tired of Americans dying for your country and then getting spit upon. It is up to you. It always has been.
SC.Charlie on February 12, 2013 at 3:25 PM
Yup, no argument here… I was being kind.
princetrumpet on February 12, 2013 at 3:32 PM
It never stopped being a civil war. They just had someone else come in to fight on their side for them for a while, rather than fight it themselves.
Dusty on February 12, 2013 at 3:39 PM
Love the several above responses about their middle class having to fight for what they have and want. I wonder 1) how large their middle is and 2) how many of those middle class sit by quietly in mosques and coffee shops as their friends and neighbors cheer American deaths.
deepdiver on February 12, 2013 at 3:58 PM
More in tune with reality. I wish them a plate of Shariah cookies.
BL@KBIRD on February 12, 2013 at 3:59 PM
All they have to do is read on line information of the sorry History of the Democrat Party (John F. Kerry) etal and how it worked out for the South Viet’s who got left behind.
The Afgan’s do have a problem.
Their escape will not be so easy as it was for the boat people from Vietnam, Laos, Camboida etal..
Looks like they will have a long long walk.
Commie Democrats get good people killed.
Commie Democrats who enable this evil get rewarded with jobs like Sec. of State and such.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 12, 2013 at 4:04 PM
What will happen?
You will face east, bend over and kiss your ash goodbye.
Lonetown on February 12, 2013 at 4:10 PM
My feelings exactly.
SC.Charlie on February 12, 2013 at 4:13 PM
My geography is a little hazy, but I believe they’d be facing the southwest during their prayers in Afghanistan.
LukeinNE on February 12, 2013 at 4:13 PM
Can’t be said enough. Not one more $ or American life should be wasted for them. If they want a better life…fight for it. Stop expecting others to do your bidding. We are suffering here at home. F them.
oceansidecon on February 12, 2013 at 4:16 PM
I don’t care what happens to them. From one individual to another I wish them well, but I am not responsible for your future.
MoreLiberty on February 12, 2013 at 4:41 PM
Why are we leaving?
Let’s win this war once and for all. 200K+ troops, no mercy on civilian Taliban lovers. Invade Pakistan if need be.
Seven Seas on February 12, 2013 at 4:49 PM
The only way to win this war is to convert these nuts to some other religion. There is no way to do that in these unless you are ready for commit genocide as has been done in the distant past.
SC.Charlie on February 12, 2013 at 5:53 PM